I've been stuck in an ongoing struggle to find a job.

Now, that probably sounds like a pretty common problem, and I'm sure it is. Quite a few people feel like they're trapped in dead-end careers or bouts of unemployment, and it can be a nightmare to pull oneself out of the mire. My particular predicament has a few unique factors associated with it, though, and I'm finding it difficult to overcome them.

I'm a long way from home.
First of all, there are only a few hubs for the industries in which I've had significant work experience, and I don't live near any of them. I'd really like to move back home (to the Bay Area), but I can't justify the expense without first having gainful employment lined up. New York and Seattle are also on my list, and I wouldn't be opposed to moving overseas if necessary... but the fact that I'm not a local candidate tends to count against me whenever I apply somewhere. I've made it clear that I don't need relocation reimbursement, but it hasn't seemed to matter.

I'm caught in a professional melee.
There's also the fact that the positions for which I'm best qualified tend to be both fairly rare and fiercely competitive. (Just the other week, for instance, I got rejected from a company whose employees had written letters of recommendation for me.) When a given position garners so many applications, getting noticed becomes something of a crap-shoot, and there's always the chance that I'll get mixed in with the folks whose information will be "kept on file for future openings." I've tried writing directly to hiring managers in follow-up emails, but thus far I've heard only silence in response.

I'm entirely too anonymous.
Finally, the nature of my work is such that I can't always take credit for everything that I've done. I can certainly allude to it, but vague résumés do not make for interested employers. People keep telling me that I need to meet someone who's familiar with the more public things that I've done, and that would certainly be nice... but as yet, none of them have been in a position to offer me a job.

So, clearly, I need to get back home in order to find a job... but I can't find a job until I get back home. I need to find some way of clearing out the competition, but I can't leverage the full force of my experience for that effort. In short, I'm stuck trying to find creative ways of calling attention to myself, all in the hopes that I might be able to leave the job boards behind and speak with a real person.

Needless to say, it's an uphill battle.

TL;DR: I'm fighting for my very life... just not in the biological sense of the word.